A Look At 2022...

Moviegoers returned to the theaters, streaming continued to grow and a bunch of top-notch horror films were released. Adam Aasen looks back at 2022.

How would you describe 2022 when it comes to movies? What embodied this year?

Some will say that this is the year that people returned to the theaters with “Top Gun: Maverick” raking in $718 million domestically (nearly $1.5 billion worldwide) with other top offerings chipping in, including “Jurassic World: Dominion,” “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “Minions: Rise of Gru.” 

Overall domestic box office for 2022 looks to be about 80 percent better than 2021, with $6.8 billion in total gross as of Dec. 15, compared to $3.7 billion for the same period of 2021 (that year ended with $4.48 billion in total gross as “Spider-Man: No Way Home” led a late December rally).

And, of course, 2021 was wayyyy better than COVID-ravage 2020 which faced theater shutdowns and only brought in $2.1 billion in total domestic gross.

But we aren’t back to pre-COVID levels yet… with the annual domestic box office gross ranging from more than $9 billion to nearly $12 billion every year since 2002. Excluding 2020 and 2021, you’d have to go back to 1998 to find a year that ended lower.

Why is this?

STREAMING DOMINANCE

Well, maybe 2022 isn’t the year that people returned to theaters. Maybe this is the year that streaming solidified its stranglehold on modern cinema with several Oscar and Golden Globe nominees for Best Picture making their way directly to streaming (not including a very small theatrical run just to qualify for the awards). Apple TV+ became the first streaming service to win the Academy Award for Best Picture in March with their coming-of-age drama “CODA.” Streaming services continued to grow their subscriber numbers, even as several new services launched in recent years, contributing to an industry worth around $400 billion globally.

HORROR FILMS TAKE CENTER STAGE

If we’re talking in terms of quality of films and not just box office performance, I’d say 2022 was the year of horror films. While there might not be an all-time classic in the bunch (debatable… I think there could be…) or a critically lauded horror film that earns Oscar praise (“Nope” could sneak a nomination for acting or something else), the massive number of must-watch horror films certainly caught my attention.

Indie studio A24 dominated the pack with 2022 horror films, “Bodies, Bodies, Bodies,” “X,” “Pearl,” and “Men,” all of which I can recommend to varying degrees. Mia Goth, star of “X,” “Pearl,” and the upcoming 2023 release “MaXXXine” might be the new scream queen of our time. Her performance in “Pearl” is seared into my memory and I can’t recommend that film enough.

Two innovative horror films will probably land in my top five favorite movies of 2022: “The Menu” and “Barbarian.” Both are suspenseful and clever with well-developed characters and unexpected twists, really everything I want from any type of movie. “Barbarian” might have had the most satisfying abrupt switch in terms of plot since “From Dusk ‘til Dawn.” “The Menu” might be more of a thriller than a true horror film, but however you categorize this film, it’s a blast from start to finish. 

Paramount’s “Smile,” although imperfect, was unexpectedly thrilling and worth a watch, and Blumhouse’s “The Black Phone” was carried by a strong performance from Ethan Hawke. 

Even when you look further down the line, you’ll find some 2022 horror films that satisfy. While far from amazing, the new “Scream” and “Halloween” entries (the former much better than the latter) embodied the charms the franchises. 

“The Watcher” was a little slow but reached a boiling point worth the wait. “Crimes of the Future” might have fallen short of David Cronenberg’s standards, but there are nuggets in there that are worthwhile.

Smaller budget horror films like “The Sadness,” “Piggy,” and “Terrifier 2” showed some creativity, despite an overall reliance of massive amounts of gore. “Terrifier 2” earned $11.5 million at the box office on a $250,000 budget (very impressive).

Ultra low-budget Canadian horror film “Skinamarink” – made for only $15,000 – might be dividing audiences with its glacially slow-paced story, but it’s making waves. Currently not available to stream (legally), it’ll premiere on Shudder in January.

And then we have “Nope,” the much-hyped release from Oscar-winner Jordan Peele. More science fiction than horror (I understand a movie can be both), “Nope” might have fallen short of expectations set when compared to Peele’s previous two movies, but it boasts two great acting performances by Daniel Kaluuya and Keke Palmer, and it features some jaw-dropping visuals. Peele still has it.

I will say I still love the movies, although my interest dropped in 2020 and 2021 as COVID shutdowns destroyed the theatrical experience and great movies were pushed back again and again. 

I worry that streaming services greenlighting every movie they can in a race to provide the most content possible – not necessarily the best. Netflix releases a new original movie about once a week and, I’m echoing comments I read elsewhere, I don’t see how you make 52 great movies each year. It’s not really possible. 

Here’s hoping to an even better movie year in 2023. I’m certainly looking forward to sequels for “John Wick,” “Creed,” “Ant-Man,” “Dune” and “Indiana Jones,” along with original movies such as Martin Scorcese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer” and Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” (the last one not just because I have a 4-year-old daughter but because I trust Gerwig, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling).

To the readers of The Film Yap, I wish you a happy new year!